It turns out learning that they’d be without their leading scorer for the rest of the season and playoffs wasn’t the only bad injury news for the Devils on Wednesday. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (audio link) that defenseman Dougie Hamilton is believed to be out week-to-week from the lower-body injury sustained in Tuesday’s loss to Dallas.
After missing the bulk of last season due to a torn pectoral muscle, Hamilton has been his usual productive self on New Jersey’s back end this year. The 31-year-old has nine goals and 31 assists through 63 games despite not even averaging 20 minutes a night of playing time. With 40 points, he leads all New Jersey blueliners in points (a dozen ahead of Luke Hughes) while sitting fifth on the team in scoring overall.
In his absence, it seems likely that they’ll ask Hughes to take a bigger role offensively, especially on the power play. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s injury could also open up a spot for Seamus Casey to get back in the lineup; the rookie had a solid start offensively to the season and has been a strong point producer in the minors so he could be counted on to help shoulder some of the load on that front as well.
It’s another tough blow to a team whose hold on a playoff spot has started to slip recently with the team losing three of their last four games. As a result, they now hold just a four-point lead on Columbus (who has two games in hand) for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division while they’re only six points ahead of a Wild Card position. Now, they’ll be down two key veterans as they look to maintain their grip on a playoff spot. That said, they also have over $13MM in LTIR room at the moment, per PuckPedia, if they want to try to add a replacement or two to try to stay afloat in the playoff race.
Hamilton’s health has become an issue.
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